Mad Max

We have the trilogy of Mad Max movies. They star a very young Mel Gibson and the first one says he's on a sure path to superstardom. Yep. They got that one right.

These movies are all rated "R" for good reason, so they're not at all for the kiddos to be watching. There's a lot of violence, some language, and even some brief nudity in the form of a few characters' bums.

The setting is "sometime in the near future" and it's after a great world war that has ravaged the earth and spawned lawlessness worldwide. Max is a police officer whose job it is to get control of gangs that take over towns like in the old West movies. They kill his wife and child, which makes him become Mad Max, a nearly insane avenger.

All three movies pit Mad Max against some dastardly characters, and of course he is victorious. They are all pretty predictable. In the last movie, Beyond Thunderdome which also stars Tina Turner, he sacrifices his own flight to freedom and a better life so that a group of abandoned children and a few others can escape to a better place in the world.

It's high adventure, lots of really cool car stunts, and some really lame background music. And it's Mel Gibson when he was barely out of his teens. I saw these movies when I was a very young person and Mel Gibson wasn't even a known actor. (Yes, now you know part of my sordid and wasted youth..lol) These movies do have a certain following, though, and I found them hard to acquire. As soon as they are posted to Ebay or other sites, they are snapped up.

By the way, I think I'll start using a rating system of some kind. What do you think about 0 to 5 popcorns?

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